It has been a rough spring and summer for American Superconductor.

The Devens, MA-based energy tech company (NASDAQ: AMSC) said today it has cut 30 percent of its workforce, about 150 positions, since March 31 and expects to employ nearly 600 people worldwide after the cuts.

The firm also said it expects to submit a plan to the Nasdaq Stock Market by August 16 to regain compliance with the market’s listing rules. American Superconductor is working to restate financial statements from its fiscal year that ended March 31, 2011, and the quarter ending on June 30, 2011, because of unpaid product shipments that were expected to be made to Chinese customers.

Back in April, the company disclosed that its biggest customer, China-based Sinovel Wind Group, “refused to accept contracted shipments” of wind turbine electrical components and spare parts. That development has led to major problems for American Superconductor, including difficulty in closing its intended $265 million acquisition of Finnish power tech firm The Switch Engineering Oy.

In May, American Superconductor went through a CEO transition, with Daniel McGahn (former president and chief operating officer) succeeding founder Gregory Yurek at the helm. And in a regulatory filing today, the company said Charles Stankiewicz, executive vice president of operations and grid segment, and Angelo Santamaria, senior vice president of global manufacturing operations, are leaving the firm this month.

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

Busy day for a couple of well-known cleantech companies around Boston. One public company has signed a big deal in China, while the other, an ambitious upstart, is carefully protecting its intellectual property as it heads toward large-scale commercialization.

—A123 Systems (NASDAQ: AONE), the Waltham, MA-based maker of lithium ion batteries, said today it has won a contract with China’s Dongfang Electric, a large manufacturer of wind turbines and power equipment. A123 will provide an energy storage system for Dongfang’s manufacturing facility in Hangzhou by the end of this year. Financial terms weren’t given. If all goes well, this will be A123’s first storage system installed in China.

A report in CNET today has more context on the deal: A123’s battery bank will be attached to a 1.5-megawatt wind turbine and diesel generator to test how well the batteries can smooth out the dips in wind energy production. A123 has car battery manufacturing facilities in China, but no grid storage systems there yet, the report says.

—Joule Unlimited, the Cambridge, MA-based biofuels startup, said today it has been awarded a pair of U.S. patents that cover its method for producing ethanol at high volumes and high efficiencies. The method involves genetically engineering “photosynthetic bacteria”—microorganisms that convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into ethanol without fermenting sugars from cellulose or other types of biomass. The patents (#7,981,647 and #7,968,321), which were granted in the past month, cover various enzymatic mechanisms that Joule has engineered into cells to maximize their ethanol productivity.

Joule has received plenty of media attention since it started in 2007. The company is also applying its method to produce energy in the form of diesel fuel, which could power trucks and planes. Joule has previously been awarded patents in the area of diesel production. The overarching idea is to replace fossil fuels, but most biofuels makers have found “they can’t compete on a cost basis,” said Joule senior vice president Troy Campione, on a panel at our XSITE conference last month. Joule, of course, believes it is different.

The company has a pilot plant in Texas that has been producing ethanol and is slated to start producing diesel later this year. Joule says it has also signed a lease for land in New Mexico on which it is building a demonstration-scale plant that will begin operations next year.

While the new patents should help distance Joule from some of its competitors, they don’t necessarily get the company to commercialization any faster. George Church, the Harvard geneticist (and chairman of Joule’s technical advisory board), was quoted in the New York Times in March saying, “It’s not a totally obvious organism and they’ve changed it pretty radically, so it’s not clear they can protect everything by patents.”

Comments (1) | Reprints | Share:          

During my brief time here in Michigan, I’ve heard a familiar prediction: The state is poised to become a cleantech powerhouse because of its expertise in manufacturing and automobile engineering.

So far, that’s mostly been talk. Danotek Motion Technologies, however, is walking the walk.

The Canton, MI-based startup has unique technology and Silicon Valley investors, but importantly, the company is making and selling real stuff to real wind power customers and creating jobs in return. In essence, Danotek is practicing what Michigan often preaches.

Danotek “has done an incredible job in building a sales pipeline,” Rachel Sheinbein, a principal in San Francisco-based CMEA Capital and Danotek board member, tells Xconomy. “We’re excited about the prospects.”

Using permanent magnet technology, Danotek is helping wind turbine makers build smaller, less costly, more efficient generators that can produce up to 3.2 megawatts of electricity.

Danotek has come a long way. In 2009, the company generated $450,000 in sales. As of the first quarter in 2011, Danotek boasts a $50 million backlog in orders from customers like General Electric, Clipper, DeWind (a unit of Daewoo), and WinWinD in Finland. Last year, the startup hired 58 employees from 13 countries, bringing its workforce to nearly 100 strong.

Unlike most high tech startups, Danotek successfully transitioned from a research and development firm to a full-fledged manufacturer thanks to one fateful decision, savvy investors, and an experienced CEO.

Danotek was founded in 2001 by a group of former GE engineers, including Daniel Gizaw, who also worked at Cummins Power Generation, General Motors, and Ford Motor. The company was interested in the idea of generating a constant magnetic field, which in turn, could produce a stable, continuous flow of electricity.

But in reality, “they didn’t have a clue of what this was going to be,” says CEO Don Naab. … Next Page »

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

Danotek Motion Technologies is finalizing a deal to secure $20 million in new financing, company officials told Xconomy.

The startup, based in Canton Township, MI, will use the money to scale up production of its permanent magnet generators for wind turbines.

The company’s existing investors, which include Khosla Ventures, CMEA Capital, GE Energy Financial Services, and Energy Capital Management, are all participating in the Series B round though Danotek may add a new investor, chief financial officer Frank Alex says.

Founded in 2001 by three former General Electric engineers, Danotek in recent years has made a big push into wind power. The startup claims its technology, which generates electricity from a constant magnetic field, can help manufacturers design efficient, lightweight, and less expensive wind turbines.

Danotek used much of the $16.25 million it raised in its Series A round to move from Ann Arbor to Canton Township, where it built its headquarters and production facility.

As of the first quarter of this year, the company has about a $50 million backlog in orders, says CEO Don Naab. The company’s customers include major turbine makers like General Electric, Clipper, DeWind (a unit of Daewoo), and WinWinD in Finland.

Naab expects the facility to hit full production in 2012.

Comments (1) | Reprints | Share:          

Kenersys, a German manufacturer of wind turbines, will base its North and South America operations in Michigan, a potential big boost for the state’s nascent cleantech industry.

The company will spend $10.2 million to establish its headquarters in Troy, MI and build a manufacturing facility at a yet-to-be-determined site, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC). The state agency awarded Kenersys a $1 million tax credit over five years.

Home to the some of the best sources of wind in the United States, the Midwest region has long tried to develop a wind power industry. But the economics of wind power, which require huge capital investments and government support, makes it unlikely investors will realize a return in the immediate future.

Nevertheless, the technology’s potential has spawned a growing startup community in Michigan, specifically Ann Arbor. ArborWind, which presented last week at the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium, has created technology to make lower cost, but high energy producing wind turbines.

Accio, led by former Accuri Cytometers CEO Jennifer Baird, is developing what it calls “aerovoltaic” wind technology, billed as a more cost-effective alternative to traditional blade systems. Accio’s technology does not require turbines. Instead, its smaller electrokinetic devices create electricity by using wind molecules to push positively charged ions against the force of an electrostatic field.

Kenersys’ size and manufacturing expertise could give Michigan’s wind power community much needed global scale and credibility. Founded in 2003, Kenersys is a subsidiary of the Kalyani Group, an Indian industrial conglomerate that specializes in engineering steel, automotive supplies and equipment, renewable energy, and specialty chemicals. Kalyani generated about $2.5 billion in sales last year.

Kenersys’ facilities in Michigan marks the company’s first foray into the Western Hemisphere wind power market. The company says it’s the first to offer open source technology, which allows customers to modify the turbines and allow third party companies to service them.

The company estimates it will create about 160 new jobs.

Comments (4) | Reprints | Share:          

Seattle-based 3Tier Group, which has developed a map of the world’s best places for wind and solar power, has named Craig Husa as its new chief executive. Founder Kenneth Westrick, who previously served as CEO, remains with the company as chairman. The company announced in December that Westrick was moving away from day-to-day duties.

Husa is an experienced businessman who previously served as CEO of NeuralIQ, General Software, and Healia, and founded CourtLink Corporation, 3Tier said in a statement. Westrick said Husa has a record of guiding “similarly sized companies through aggressive expansion.” Husa also holds an MBA from Harvard and is a former Navy officer who trained in nuclear engineering and served on submarines, 3Tier said.

We last checked in with 3Tier more than a year ago, when the company had just reported $3 million in additional equity financing and was fresh from completing its map of promising solar-power sites. The map of wind currents was completed in late 2008, and the company raised $10 million to finish the project around that time.

The recession hit alternative energy companies hard, though, and 3Tier was forced to lay off an unspecified number of people in 2009. 3Tier is privately held and backed by venture investors, with Switzerland-based Good Energies as lead investor.

Comments (2) | Reprints | Share:          

Hundreds of people packed the Bell Harbor Conference Center on Seattle’s waterfront yesterday for the University of Washington’s annual Business Plan Competition. Now in its 14th year, the competition is a great showcase of energy and ideas from student entrepreneurs and some of their more experienced collaborators.

Last night, the group of 37 teams was whittled down to the “sweet 16″ semifinal round. You can learn more about the particulars of the competition at the Foster Business School website, and check out the list of the 16 semifinalists.

I wasn’t there as a judge, but decided to compile a few capsules of the proto-companies that caught my eye—even though some of them didn’t make the next round, or even have websites yet, we could be hearing more from these folks in the future.

Yoi! Gaming
Massively multiplayer video games are not exactly mainstream, but the people who are into them are really passionate—there are mini-celebrity players who make a living in competitive gaming, John Madden-esque online commentators, and big tournaments with serious prizes.

But Yoi! Gaming CEO C.J. Wong says there’s a gap between those big tournaments, which can be difficult to qualify for, and the smaller, local competitions that rely on having everyone in the same place. “We feel like we’re in 1918 before the NFL started—there’s a bunch of small leagues out there,” Wong says.

The idea behind Yoi! is to set up online matchmaking that can sort people into quick groups for competing against each other, with buy-ins and prizes—something that should sound familiar to anyone who’s seen online poker sites explode in the past decade.

Wong says, however, that online video gaming competitions have avoided the heat that regulators have applied to poker companies because the games are seen as more skill-based, and not related to gambling. Yoi! already has a license from Blizzard Entertainment, the makers of hugely popular game StarCraft—which, I am not making this up, is so popular in South Korea that tournaments are shown live on TV.

ZeroBrane
These guys are developing a small, cheap robot that uses a smartphone as its brain. The little machine, which looks like an iPhone riding a miniature pair of Segway wheels, is intended mostly for entertainment purposes on the consumer side right now—tooling around the house or “chasing your cat,” … Next Page »

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

Michigan may have potential in medical devices and software but in the end, the state’s high tech future, for better for worse, is really tied to cleantech.

For one thing, it offers the most natural and logical extension of Michigan’s core expertise in automobiles/manufacturing, experts say. Think lithium batteries, electric cars, next generation engines equipped with software that smartly manages energy consumption.

“I think Michigan has a great chance at cleantech because it so tied with transportation,” says Chris Rizik, CEO and fund manager of Renaissance Venture Capital Fund in Ann Arbor, MI. Rizik is a featured panelist for Thursday’s Xconomy: Michigan 2031, a forum for the state’s best investors and entrepreneurs to envision the future of Michigan’s high tech economy and brainstorm ways to make that vision a reality.

But here’s what really pushes cleantech ahead of the pack: unlike medical devices and software, cleantech enjoys significant financial and institutional support from both Uncle Sam and Michigan’s top politicians.

Last fall, Watertown, M-based A123Systems opened a lithium battery plant in Livonia, MI, thanks a $249 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and $125 million in refundable tax credits from Michigan’s 21st Century Jobs Fund. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, along with then Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, attended the plant’s opening ceremony.

In 2009, Michigan established the Centers for Energy Excellence program, which provides $45 million over three years to fund technology commercialization and research between companies and universities and national laboratories.

Later this month, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and University of Michigan are hosting a conference exploring Michigan’s investments into manufacturing and clean energy.

“Though Michigan’s research infrastructure suffered during the deep recession that forced major cutbacks in the research funded by the auto industry, the state has leveraged local investment, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act [federal stimulus] funding, and the strengths of its universities to begin rapidly rebuilding manufacturing by investing in new industries,” the DOE said on the conference website. “Many of these new investments are in clean energy, and the DOE is interested in learning from this natural experiment in rapid rebuilding of R&D and manufacturing capability.”

Not surprisingly, local cleantech startups attracting investor cash are developing auto-related technologies. Khosla Ventures, for example, is backing lithium ion battery maker Sakti3 in Ann Arbor, MI, and EcoMotors in Allen Park, MI, which is developing a more energy efficient engine. (Sakti3 CEO Ann Marie Sastry will be joining ups at Michigan 2031 as well.) General Motors has invested $5 million in wireless charging startup Powermat in Commerce Township, MI.

But is there more to Michigan cleantech than just greener cars? … Next Page »

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

West Lebanon, NH-based SustainX, an energy-storage startup out of Dartmouth College, said today it has received $14.4 million in financing from GE Energy Financial Services and other investors including Cadent Energy Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, and Rockport Capital. SustainX, which started in 2007, uses compressed air in above-ground vessels to store energy in an efficient way. Possible applications of the technology include storing wind and solar energy and improving the stability of the electric grid.

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

A New England energy giant is making big strides overseas. Devens, MA-based American Superconductor (NASDAQ: AMSC) said today it plans to acquire The Switch Engineering Oy, a power technologies firm based in Finland, for 190 million Euros (about $265 million) in cash and stock. The deal is expected to close by the end of August.

American Superconductor, which focuses on wind power and other renewable energy technologies, says the acquisition will make money immediately and will support the firm’s growth to $1 billion in annual revenue by 2014. The Switch makes power converter systems, permanent magnet generators, and other equipment for wind turbine manufacturers in China, Europe, Korea, and the U.S. The Finnish company made a profit of about $15 million on $179 million in revenue in calendar year 2010.

AMSC’s fiscal year 2009 (ending March 31, 2010) was its first full year of profitability, thanks in large part to its wind power business. The company says it expects “another record year of revenues and earnings in fiscal 2010,” which ends this month.

AMSC, which was founded in 1987 by four MIT professors (including current CEO and chairman Greg Yurek), initially entered the wind power market in 2006-2007. The company has a strong presence in Europe, China, and India.

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

“Steve Beeler,” says the cheery, bespectacled man sporting a bright green tie as he extends his hand to me.

“Nice to meet you,” I reply. “Do you have a business card?”

“Um…no,” Beeler says somewhat sheepishly. “We just settled some issues with our [web]domain name.”

Ah, the life of a high tech startup!

We’re sitting in a small room Wednesday morning at the TechBrewery near downtown Ann Arbor. Sitting across the table from Beeler is Jeff Bocan, managing director of Beringea, the Detroit-based venture capital and private equity firm.

Beeler has exactly 15 minutes to pitch Bocan on why Beringea should invest in ArborWind, a startup developing lower cost wind turbines.

Fifteen minutes doesn’t sound like a whole lot of time to sell someone on anything. But it doesn’t matter: Bocan won’t be writing any checks today. For one thing, Beringea only finances later stage companies, not early stage startups like ArborWind.

No, the real point of Beringea’s “Office Hours” is to nurture Michigan’s startup community by providing valuable feedback to entrepreneurs seeking cash for their ideas. It’s also a good way for the VCs to keep their ears to the ground for new opportunities they might not otherwise hear about.

“We give them the chance to refine their pitch,” says managing director Michael Gross. “We either affirm their strategy or point them to another direction.”

So far, Beringea has listened to some 50 pitches from across the state. The quality of ideas varies wildly, from ideas sketched on napkins to things that aren’t exactly venture capital growth opportunities—like tanning salons. But Beringea executives tend to offer similar feedback.

“A lot of entrepreneurs have not researched their markets thoroughly,” says associate David Ruby. “People haven’t thought it through. For example, capitalization, not knowing how much will it take to get from Point A to Point B, how expensive it is to build and scale a business.”

Today, about 20 entrepreneurs will present. First up is Beeler, the launch chief operating officer for … Next Page »

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

Resonant Venture Partners in Ann Arbor, MI, said it has invested an undisclosed amount in Accio Energy, a startup developing a new way to generate electricity from wind.

The startup, which is also based in Ann Arbor, is “developing a novel…wind energy generation technology to deliver clean, sustainable energy to people around the globe,” Resonant announced via its Twitter feed. “Accio Energy will disrupt the entire wind energy supply chain cost structure with distinctive systems that are as silent, stationary, and modular as solar panels, and orders of magnitude more cost effective than wind turbines.”

Founded by Jason Townsend and Michael Godwin, two former Silicon Valley veterans who earned MBAs from the University of Michigan, Resonant previously collaborated with Palo Alto, CA-based True Ventures on a $1 million investment in Duo Security (previously known as Scio Security).

Accio is developing what it calls “aerovoltaic” wind technology, billed as a more cost-effective alternative to traditional blade systems. CEO Jennifer Baird is the co-founder of Accuri Cytometers, which recently agreed to be acquired by Becton, Dickinson, & Co.

Under the current model, electricity from wind-powered turbines reaches grids through miles of transmission lines. However, this kind of wind power faces a long period of regulatory scrutiny before the state approves a project because of possible environmental damage. Building large wind towers, turbines, and transmission lines also requires huge construction and maintenance costs. Even with millions of dollars of state subsidies, it often takes at least a decade before investors can recoup their costs and earn a profit.

Accio’s technology does not require turbines. Instead, its smaller electrokinetic devices create electricity by using wind molecules to push positively charged ions against the force of an electrostatic field, according to documents filed with the U.S. Trademark & Patent Office. The company says it can distribute the electricity directly to the grid or store it locally for energy on demand. (The only known way to “store” electricity is through a battery, which converts electricity into a chemical energy and back again.)

In theory, such wind generation devices can run continuously on speeds of up to 120 miles per hour, generating about 24 kilowatts per square meter, the patent filing said. By contrast, larger turbines can sustain damage once winds exceed 60 miles per hour.

Accio has won funding from the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the R&D arm of the Defense Department. Under its DARPA contract, the company is developing portable wind power devices for soldiers to use in the field.

Comments (1) | Reprints | Share:          

It’s “Clean Energy Week” here in Massachusetts—that entails a bunch of events in and around Boston on the theme of alternative energy and cleantech. I’m particularly looking forward to the biggest one, the Sixth Conference on Clean Energy, which is happening tomorrow and Thursday at the Hynes Convention Center. The conference, co-produced by the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center (MTTC) and the Massachusetts Hydrogen Coalition, is expected to draw between 400 and 500 attendees, and more than 60 exhibiting companies and about 100 speakers.

Some highlights of the conference: There will be keynotes from Ian Bowles, Massachusetts’ secretary of energy and environmental affairs; Jim Gordon, the president of Cape Wind; and Stan Kowalski, chairman of FloDesign. Panel discussions over the two days will tackle important topics like renewable energy policy, venture capital and financing, and the future of cleantech sectors including energy storage, efficiency, smart grid, solar, wind, ocean energy, electric vehicles, and green computing.

The main goal of the conference is “really to showcase early-stage companies and help them get funding,” says Abi Barrow, the founding director of MTTC and an organizer of the event (see photo above).

Thirty-three companies looking for financing will give 10-minute pitches to an audience of investors and business leaders. The list of firms (the majority are from New England, with a few from Europe and Israel) includes Free Flow Power, OsComp Systems, Prism Solar Technologies, and World Energy Solutions.

The conference will also highlight bigger cleantech companies that are hiring in the region—always a hot topic. Among them is Boston-based EnerNOC (NASDAQ: ENOC), which I’m told is looking to hire more than 60 people in the coming year.

Barrow says her team has reviewed the companies that have pitched in the previous five years of the conference (about 100 of them), and found that they have since raised a total of $220 million in new venture and angel investment, $50 million in grant funding, and $10M in debt financing. (Some companies involved with the conference in the past few years include Qteros, FloDesign, and Novomer.)

As for top of mind issues in the industry, Barrow says, “The great unknown is what’s going to happen [in the elections] and how that’s going to impact the industry.” She mentions that the failure of Sen. John Kerry’s recent climate bill is “not good for the clean energy sector,” because “without a price on carbon, there’s no market pull.” On the plus side, she says, big tech companies like Google are all thinking about how to make their expanding facilities greener and more energy- and cost-efficient.

The closing panel at the conference, moderated by yours truly, will focus on the ins and outs of government financing for clean energy, and will feature Patrick Cloney of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Ben Levitan of In-Q-Tel, Kelly Carnes of TechVision21, and Nick Masci of Dacon Corporation.

I plan to ask the panelists about a number of issues, including how their strategies can work in conjunction with federal funds and private venture sources to support new companies, ideas, and risk-taking (nuclear or geo-engineering, anyone?); what the promising and not-so-promising areas of cleantech investment are these days; and their financing advice for startups and entrepreneurs. Should be a fun discussion.

Let me know if you have questions for the panel, or suggestions for other themes to explore at the event—please leave a comment below or drop me a note. Hope to see you at the conference.

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

The Cannon Power Group, a Del Mar, CA-based wind power developer, said it has closed a $547 million deal to provide electricity for 20 years to the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA), a group of municipal utilities throughout the Los Angeles region. Cannon says the deal is believed to be the largest transaction of its kind. Under terms of the deal, electricity for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and other SCPPA members will be generated by Cannon Power Group’s 262-megawatt Windy Flats project, which overlooks the Columbia River near Goldendale, WA.

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

A little less than two years ago I made the decision to enroll at MIT Sloan for an MBA. Shortly after getting to the campus, I made the decision to look at careers in the energy sector. Despite being armed with a technical degree and spending some time in the energy sector prior to enrolling at Sloan, I was green—no pun intended. A sequence of lucky associations and learning experiences exposed me to different aspects of the energy sector.

After 16 months and an MBA degree, I can safely say that it was a great learning experience trying to understand the business side of innovation in the energy sector. While it is unfair to characterize a sector into generic “boxes” to better understand it, I have attempted to do so regardless. I’ve read multiple documents and have heard investors and entrepreneurs talk about the risks involved in new ventures. I am not going to repeat them here. Instead I want to write about three crucial factors that one needs to appreciate when starting or investing in a new venture in energy: policy, people, and scale.

Policy

Everyone in the energy sector knows this: regulation and policy drive the adoption of a majority of energy technologies/services in the world today. Feed-in tariffs in Germany and the rest of Western Europe were (and are) responsible for the rise of solar and wind energy. Product and investment tax credits drove wind and solar manufacturing and installation, biomass, as well as geothermal project development in the U.S. in the last three years. Numerous states in the U.S. have extended multiple tax credits for energy-efficient appliances, homes, and offices.

China, India, and Japan have also joined the party and have aggressively included regulations to favor the adoption of new energy technologies. A day does not go by these days without a politician/activist/industrialist calling for the adoption of a renewable energy standard (RES) in the U.S.—some of the European nations have already either approved an RES or are in the process of approving one.

So what does this mean for you and me? Well, if you are thinking of starting a new venture or want a job in investing, you should keep in mind that success to a large extent currently depends on policy and regulations helping you out. Or if you don’t want to depend on regulations, try to work or invest in a business that does not use them as a crutch—there are a few of these if you look hard.

People

Quite a few intelligent people have already written about how the energy “renaissance” of the 21st century is very different from that of the Internet/high-tech boom of the 1990s. I will spare you the side-by-side comparisons here, but it is safe to say they are indeed sufficiently different. One important distinction is the background of the founders. You did not need an advanced degree, or to spend hours in a research lab, to come up with the business idea for Facebook, PayPal, eBay, or Amazon.com (Google is an exception). A majority of innovation in energy that will be successfully commercialized will originate … Next Page »

Comments (4) | Reprints | Share:          

TPI Composites, an Arizona-based maker of wind turbine blades, plans to open a new facility in Fall River, MA, as soon as January, according to a report in the Boston Globe. The plant will be a development hub for TPI’s facilities in Rhode Island, Iowa, Mexico, and China, the report says. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center has confirmed it will provide a $250,000 grant to TPI, contingent on the jobs expected to be created at the new plant (about 30 when it opens).

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

One of the giants of the New England cleantech scene is making waves—or should I say, wind. Devens, MA-based American Superconductor (NASDAQ: AMSC) said today it has received a new order for 17 wind-turbine electrical control systems from Inox Wind, based in India. Financial details weren’t given, but the company is touting it as a significant development.

Normally this wouldn’t really be news for us—the Inox partnership itself isn’t new—but the order is the latest in a series of moves that signify AMSC’s rise to prominence in the global power technology scene. Last week, the company said it had paid $8 million in cash to acquire a 25 percent ownership stake in Blade Dynamics, a U.K.-based maker of wind-turbine blades. And in bigger news for the company, fiscal year 2009 was AMSC’s first full fiscal year of profitability. The majority of the company’s revenues—which have been growing from quarter to quarter for about the past three years—come from its wind power business.

American Superconductor first entered the wind market in 2006-2007 when it acquired Windtec, an Austrian wind turbine and electrical systems company. In 2008, the company scored a $450 million contract to make power converters for Sinovel Wind Corporation in China. In 2008, AMSC also licensed its wind turbine design to Ghodawat Industries in India (which also placed a $20 million order for electrical control systems from AMSC last April). So Inox is AMSC’s second big wind turbine manufacturing customer in India.

AMSC was founded in 1987 by four MIT professors, including current CEO and chairman Greg Yurek. Before getting heavily into renewable energy and wind power, the company was best known for making high-temperature superconductor wire, which can carry more power than copper wire and can be applied to various smart-grid problems. AMSC has approximately 800 employees and has a strong presence in China and India.

Comments | Reprints | Share:          

If you’ve crossed the U.S. Midwest by car recently, as I have, you may have noticed a new kind of crop sprouting up amidst the corn and soybeans: wind turbines, thousands of them. Now, some of the electricity those turbines produce will be going to Google Energy, a new entity set up by the Mountain View, CA, search giant last year to participate in wholesale energy markets.

Urs Hoelzle, Google’s senior vice president of operations, announced on the company’s blog today that Google Energy has signed a 20-year agreement to buy 114 megawatts of power from NextEra Energy Resources, which operates 9,000 wind turbines across 17 states. Google is buying power from a specific group of 100 GE-manufactured NextEra turbines in Story County and Hardin County in central Iowa. (Story County’s largest city is Ames, home of Iowa State University.)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has been striving since 2007 to become carbon-neutral by making its facilities more energy-efficient (it said last year that it had already cut its energy use in half). The company is also turning to renewable energy sources such as the solar panels at its Mountain View headquarters and hydropower from the Columbia River in Oregon, and has been buying carbon offsets. Hoelzle said that the electricity Google Energy is purchasing from NextEra is “enough to supply several data centers.”

However, the wind turbines in Iowa won’t directly power Google facilities, which are too far away to efficiently transmit all the energy. Instead, Google has structured the deal in a way that it hopes will benefit the broader renewable-energy movement. Google will resell the electricity produced by the turbines on the spot market, while at the same time retiring the renewable energy credits, or RECs, associated with the project.

RECs are independently traded entities often bought by organizations seeking carbon offsets. They guarantee that the energy from a given project is produced in a way that does not add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. They were, at one time, envisioned as a key source of financing for renewable energy projects, but the recession has dampened demand for the certificates.

Buying the actual power from the Iowa wind farms, rather than just the “naked” RECs, has a bigger benefit, Google said, in that it will provide NextEra with a guaranteed customer, allowing it to build more wind farms. “The inability of renewable energy developers to obtain financing has been a significant inhibitor to the expansion of renewable energy,” Hoelzle said on the Google blog. “We’ve been excited about this deal because taking 114 megawatts of wind power off the market for so long means producers have the incentive and means to build more renewable energy capacity for other customers.”

NextEra, which has its headquarters in Juno Beach, FL, says its growth has been built on such contracts. “We are thrilled to welcome Google Energy to our growing list of customers and appreciate their support of emission-free, renewable energy,” said Mike O’Sullivan, NextEra’s senior vice president of development, in a press release today. “With the support of customers like Google Energy, we’ve built our wind fleet from fewer than 500 megawatts a decade ago to more than 7,600 megawatts—the largest fleet in North America today.”

But the deal isn’t entirely an act of charity. It also gives Google a way to hedge against future hikes in energy prices. If Google can sell the Iowa wind power on the spot market for more than it’s paying NextEra, it will make a profit on the contract, offsetting higher energy costs elsewhere.

“While we are happy to be purchasing renewable energy as part of our environmental commitment, this is also a structure that makes long term financial sense for Google,” the company said in a statement. “Through the long term purchase of renewable energy at a predetermined price, we’re partially protecting ourselves against future increases in power prices. This is a case where buying green makes business sense.”

Comments (3) | Reprints | Share:          

This is one of the stealthiest and most intriguing cleantech companies in New England. XL Hybrids, based in Somerville, MA, has just received $300,000 in investment from an undisclosed professional fund, which brings its total seed funding to just over $1.8 million. The company previously had raised a little more than $1.5 million in angel investment, about half of which we reported back in February.

XL Hybrids is keeping things quiet for a while, but I’ve gleaned some new details about the operation from talking with Tod Hynes, the company’s co-founder and president. Hynes is a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he teaches a course on energy ventures. He is also the co-founder of the MIT Clean Energy Prize, and has been working in the cleantech industry for eight years, having made his name in wind power development.

The idea behind XL is to convert commercial fleet vehicles—town cars, duty vans, and trucks for hire—into hybrid (gas-electric) vehicles. The company is initially targeting vehicles that travel more than 30,000 miles a year, Hynes says, but that figure will go down with the cost of the XL system. By retrofitting conventional cars and trucks with lithium ion batteries, electric motors, and other integration and control technologies, he says, XL can reduce fuel consumption by 15 to 30 percent, depending on how the vehicles are used. Hynes declined to give details about the retrofitting process, saying it’s proprietary.

Of course, retrofitting existing vehicles to make them hybrid or electric has been a popular idea for some time. What makes XL unique is that it’s focused on low costs and the ability to deploy its technology quickly in a large number of vehicles, Hynes says. Hence the focus on conventional hybrids instead of pure electric or plug-in vehicles. “Our strategy is to focus on the most cost-effective system,” he says. “Our target is a good economic solution…that will reduce petroleum consumption very rapidly.”

“It’s a great economic opportunity,” Hynes adds. “You have to deal with the vehicles on the road. You need to have a hybrid before a plug-in.”

Hynes founded XL Hybrids together with four other MIT alums in 2009. It currently has six full-time employees. The company has been developing and testing its technology over the past year, and is now lining up pilot tests in the Boston area for this fall. If all goes well, the plan is to roll out national pilots soon thereafter.

It probably doesn’t hurt XL’s prospects that crude oil is currently above $75 a barrel. Hynes acknowledges that the price of oil “has a big impact on the business.” But he maintains, “We can make the numbers work down to $50 a barrel.”

Comments (3) | Reprints | Share:          

With Michigan law requiring that 10 percent of its energy supply come from renewable sources by 2015, Consumers Energy has announced its supply will reach 6.2 percent after it purchases electricity from four new renewable energy projects.

Consumers Energy, which supplies power to more than 6 million of Michigan’s 10 million residents, has reached power purchase agreements with independent developers for more than 240 megawatts of new Michigan-based renewable energy capacity. It’s part of the utility’s “Balanced Energy Initiative,” a 20-year plan to create a mix of power sources that includes renewable energy.

The projects included in the deal are:

• John Deere Wind Energy, based in Johnston, IA, will develop its Michigan Wind 2 farm in Sanilac County, MI, to provide 90 megawatts beginning in 2012.
• John Deere Wind Energy will develop its Harvest II Windfarm project in Huron County, MI, to provide 59.4 megawatts beginning in late 2012.
• John Deere Wind Energy and Great Lakes Wind will develop their Blissfield Wind Energy project in Lenawee County to provide 81 megawatts of renewable energy beginning in late 2012.
• Waste Management Renewable Energy, based in Houston, will develop an additional landfill gas electric generation facility at its Pine Tree Acres landfill in Lenox Township, MI, to provide 12.8 megawatts beginning in 2012.

Late last month, Consumers Energy deferred building a new “clean coal” plant in Michigan, citing an expected Midwest electric surplus due to the recession.

Comments | Reprints | Share: